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Riding my road bike through Cleveland Park last Sunday, I cam upon these fellows out in the grassy area playing bicycle polo. It looked like fun. Just below you can see the video that I took of them with my helmet cam.
Now, if you want to see REAL bicycle polo, check out this video of bicycle polo in Ireland. I thought cyclo cross was weird! This takes the cake.
Ah, the amazing things you can do on a bicycle.
George Hincapie has left another mark on the City of Greenville. Under beautiful blue skies, the Tour de France stage winner and Greenville resident lead dozens of cyclists for a ride along the newly dedicated Hincapie Path.
The Hincapie Path is part of the Swamp Rabbit Trail which many hope will someday run from Conestee to Travelers Rest. The section of the trail bearing his name stretches from Woodland Way in Greenville’s Cleveland Park to East Faris Road near Greenville First Baptist.
Greenville mayor, Knox White, began the event explaining some of the vision for trail. George Hincapie said a few well received words following the unveiling of a trail sign bearing the name “Hincapie Path.” The Hincapie family then joined him and city officials to cut the ribbon to officially open the path.
Those attending with bikes then had the opportunity to ride the path with George. The ride included a loop through some Greenville streets before returning to Cleveland Park. Following the short ceremonial ride, George headed off on a ride with friends including fellow Columbia rider, Craig Lewis.
Many members of the Palmetto Peloton Project’s Challenge to Conquer Cancer riders were there to support this great addition to an active Greenville community. These riders recently returned from a week long cycling trip to Austin, Texas to participate in the LiveStrong Challenge.
Check out the pictures from The Greenville News at GreenvilleOnline.com.
I have been training the wrong way for the last 3000 miles. I am the type that just can’t stand going slow. Problem is, when it comes to cycling, you have to go slow in order to go fast.
If you go fast from the get go, you never get the most out of your muscles. Then by the end of the season, you are running out of power while those who started slow are just coming into theirs.
Here is how I’m told it works. You go slow for longer distances to slowly bring all of your muscles into play. The capillaries begin to spread and attach to the muscles that have not been used as much and this helps get oxygen to your body. This is important when you start going hard. You’ll need that oxygen!
If you just hop on and go hard, the body tries to work with what it has. It tries to feed fewer muscles and those muscles get overworked. Overworked muscles are unhappy muscles. Unhappy muscles equal unhappy cyclists.
So, even though it is a little late to change my ways, I have started a plan to do more interval training rides. This is where you go easy for a set time or distance and then go hard for a set time or distance.
Here are my laps of Cleveland Park:
| Lap (#) |
Time (m:s) |
Distance (mi ) |
M Spd (mph) |
HR (bpm) |
Cadence (rpm) |
Energy (Cal) |
|
| Avg | Max | ||||||
| 1 | 12:04 | 2.48 | 27.5 | 122 | 143 | 63 | 176 |
| 2 | 6:31 | 2.51 | 32.2 | 176 | 186 | 84 | 185 |
| 3 | 11:14 | 2.49 | 27.5 | 150 | 184 | 73 | 193 |
| 4 | 6:54 | 2.49 | 32.7 | 179 | 187 | 74 | 174 |
| 5 | 8:49 | 2.48 | 25.3 | 163 | 177 | 78 | 173 |
| 6 | 6:50 | 2.51 | 34.7 | 181 | 186 | 80 | 174 |
| 7 | 10:00 | 2.47 | 26.4 | 156 | 182 | 72 | 170 |
| 8 | 6:35 | 2.48 | 38.7 | 181 | 188 | 74 | 191 |
| 9 | 10:10 | 2.49 | 25.3 | 155 | 182 | 68 | 202 |
| 10 | 7:22 | 2.49 | 34.7 | 175 | 188 | 86 | 200 |
I was happy to see that on my hard laps (the red ones), I was able to stay under 7 minutes per lap. I also was able to nearly match my last hard lap to my first – only 4 seconds off. That last lap was actually not part of the training. I did a lap with some other cyclists.
The result of this was that I felt like my legs got an even better workout than when I push for an hour. By the way, my average speed was 17.2 mph for 1:26. Even though I felt my legs got a good workout, I recovered much faster. I really think this is going to help.
My plan is to do this most Tuesday or Monday evenings. Thursday evenings are for my climbing training. I’ll do intervals there as well, but they will be up Paris Mountain. This Thursday, my plan is to do five “laps” which should give me about 20 miles.
I think I just might be ready for the P3 when it comes around…
I don’t feel good. Maybe it is because I’m seeing the cardiovascular power of those Tour De France riders! When they are tooling along at 100 bpm, my heart would be banging away at 160 to 170 bpm.
I have not had a regular training routine in several weeks. This week I was off the bike Sunday through Tuesday because of my Grandfather’s funeral. Tuesday I managed to get on the trainer (I’ve converted my ProFlex 757 into a stationary bike) and put in about 20 miles. I did the same on Wednesday evening. I couldn’t wait to get back on the road!
What I found was that I am not nearly as in shape as I was before my surgery. Before the break, I really had to work hard to get my heart rate into 180s. The last two times out I have hit a max of 191 bpm. I can power up a climb over 20 mph, but then I feel like puking at the top as my HR soars.
I guess I just need to get back in the saddle and build my base miles up again. By the way, on my ride tonight, I crossed the 3000 mile mark since last August.
I’m typing this while watching the TDF. They were just talking about Hincapie just a few moments ago. Old Bob doesn’t even know how to say “South Carolina.” He calls it “Southern California.” Then they have the audacity to think we don’t know how to say, “Pla d’Adet.” Who has trouble saying things? Either way, I enjoy watching the Tour da frantz.
On the day that the riders of the Tour De France were making their first short ride in the French countryside to enter Belgium (there is some beautiful scenery in Belgium!), the 2007 road race and time trial courses for the USA Pro Cycling Championships were announced here in Greenville.
The road race will begin at 1 p.m. on September 2. The route is slightly modified from the 2006 course. It’s total length is 110 miles made up of four circuits of a 22 mile main route with six shorter (just under 4 miles) loops of downtown and Cleveland Park. This means the riders will only have to cover Paris Mountain four times instead of five like they did in 2006.
Want to ride the course? Well, you start at the intersection of Broad and Main St. Right there by the Greenville News and the Peace Center. Head west for about fifty yards and take a right on River Street. Take the next right on McBee and then follow the map above down to and through Cleveland Park back to the start/finish line. You’ll need to do that loop three times before heading out on the main circuit. Ride the large route four times and then finish up with three more loops of the in town course.
This is the same route that the riders of the Palmetto Peloton will be taking this year. We are supposed to go on the course and see how many laps we can complete before the pros come out. Looks like we may only have a couple of hours to get it in. I need to find out if they plan to have us do the start and finishing loops as well. My guess is we won’t – but will stick with the primary 22 mile loop.
Well, now back to Europe… George busted up his knee yesterday in that big pile up. Hope he will be okay. He seemed more frustrated than physically hurt. Guess we’ll find out today…
I got on my bike last night for the first time since Monday. I had a funny feeling that it was going to be an interesting ride, but I decided to do the US Pro Cycling route.
My stomach wasn’t feeling that great and I was kind of tired from changes in my schedule. Still, I headed out and by the time I got into the park, I was thinking to myself that this wouldn’t be so bad. I had finished a lap of the park and was about to head downtown when I looked to check my heart rate. My monitor wasn’t there!
I turned around and backtracked, scanning the road for the watch. This particular HRM is a watch and you can mount on your handlebars. I ended up riding all the way back to East North Street. As I started the climb I heard a car hit something and saw something black pop up into the air. Instantly, I knew what it was. It was the rubber holder that goes between the watch and the handlebar.
I got off the bike, picked up the holder, and then started to look for the watch. Up the road a little farther I saw portions of the wrist band. As I got closer, I was able to see multiple piece of the monitor. It was gone.
Home seemed kind of inviting at that point, but I got back on to finish what I had started. Back through the park and over the Pete Hollis. As I approached that road, I grabbed my gel bot to get some gel and water. No gel – just odd tasting water. Sure enough, my flask cylinder had fallen down in the bottle.
Then on to Paris Mountain. At the base I had averaged 18 mph – that wasn’t so bad considering. Ahead of me just as I turned up Altamont was another rider. It would be nice to have some company. I came up behind him and we started to climb. I shifted down to the lower gears and my chain started jumping causing me to lose momentum and ticking me off. The last three rings on my rear cassett just would not work. The chain would slip back and forth. So, I had to go in a harder ring. Well, the guy in front of me was spinning away – and pulling away.
Arrrgggghhhhh!
Finally over the top and back home without further problems. As I came back through Cleveland Park, I noticed I had put in 27 miles to the point. It kind of surprised me. By the time I got home it was 34 miles. That ended up being a positive.
I hope to get my attitude straightened out before trying to go out again. Also on my to do list is to get that derailer fixed and see if I can get a new HRM off of eBay. I’m looking at the Garmin e305.
Thirty minutes into my ride last night at Cleveland Park, I looked down at my cyclometer and saw 20.4. This was significant because I set as my goal to average 20 mph for one hour around the established riding circuit in the park. Maybe today was the day!
Yesterday I went to Sunshine Cycle Shop and upgraded my wheel set to some Mavic Kysrium Elites. Now, in the back of my mind I wondered if it was all hype – that lighter wheels could help you go faster and climb better. My ride in the park would give me some indication because I have LOADS of data from past rides.
Once I was past the 30 minute mark, I just told myself to try to hang onto the 20 average until the 45 minute mark. I did it! I was now averaging 20.2.
Then it became a lap-by-lap goal. I kept telling myself, “Hey, it is okay if you go below 20, just don’t do it this lap.” Once I got into the next lap, I would tell myself the same thing. I also eased up a little to spin for my muscles. This brought me down to 20 even. However, over the last laps I pulled it up once more to finish at 20.2.
First, I realize for a lot of riders an average of 20 mph for an hour in Cleveland Park is no big deal. However, I’ve stopped comparing myself to other riders (yeah, right) and have tried to focus on my own goals and bettering myself against myself. It was exciting to reach this goal!
Second, was it the wheels? I don’t know. When I pick the bike up, I do not notice a large difference in weight, but as soon as I climbed on and started rolling, I sensed a major difference in the way the wheels rolled. The bearings were smoooooth and I felt like I was gliding.
In the end, I averaged 170 on my heart rate with a max during the ride around 180. I spent a lot less time in the upper range of my heart rate (based on a max heart rate of 196) than before. So, I tend to think that it was a combination of things: 1. The wheels did make a difference. 2. I was psychologically up for it. 3. My recent Paris Mountain rides have increased my strength and stamina.
Let’s see… what is my next goal? It will have something to do with Paris Mountain.
What a difference a day makes! Monday night I rode and tanked. It was my first night back on the bike after an extended break. Last night was a different story!
I rushed home from work so that I could get in an hour of riding before heading off to my church. This time I determined to pace myself. I slowly worked my way up from a warm up lap until 45 minutes into my ride I was averaging 19.8 mph. At that point, I realized I would definitely finish over 19 mph.
A couple of times I came up on other riders. We began to yoyo and I was tempted to pick up so that I would stay ahead. I fought the desire because that would break my tempo and wear me down. Toward the end I still felt good enough to come out of the saddle and crank it up the climbs. Sure, I felt like puking when I got to the top, but that went away and I finished with a 19.7 mph average! My best time yet!
Three points away from my goal. I’ll tell you though, it is going to be tough. The only places for me to pick up speed are on the climbs and the flat sections. I’m going as fast as I can down the hills.
I checked my training file and noticed I had not riden my bike since April 17th! It isn’t that I haven’t wanted to. I simply have not had the time. Every evening has been taken by something. Every Saturday has been cram packed.
Tonight I was able to hop on and do an hour ride before cooling down a little and going to watch my daughter’s soccer game. I rode Cleveland Park and right away jumped on the wheel of another rider there. I stayed with him for two laps — actually one lap I was feeling so good I pulled away (BAD IDEA). On the climb of the third lap he caught me and dropped me. I had jumped out too early.
From there is it was rough. My legs started tightening and about 8 miles in I had to start spinning to try to get some of the lactic buildup out of my muscles. By mile 10 I was feeling a little better in my legs but my gas was gone. I soldiered on for another 12 miles and then called it a night.
Before the unsought for break in riding, I was consistently averaging over 19 mph on my Cleveland Park ride. I dropped down to 18.5. I’ve got LOTS of work to do before trying a century ride!
Not much to report on now days. Between the weather and sick children, I haven’t been able to do much riding. Monday night I went out and only managed one lap before rain started coming down and on top of that, I just didn’t seem to have it in my legs.
The weather also kept me off the bike until last night. I went out to Cleveland Park and was supposed to meet a friend for a ride. I think our wires got crossed because he wasn’t there – at least I didn’t see him there. I went ahead and started lapping the route. I actually felt pretty good. I was averaging 19.7 mph after riding for nearly 40 minutes.
About that time, it started to rain pretty well. It was just cool enough for me to decide not to end up getting soaked. So, I started to pull into the parking lot. I signaled to the car coming out the lot that I would going to turn left. However, the guy decides to just go ahead and start pulling out – as though he was trying to time my passing him as I went straight. I had to put on the brakes and because of the water, my rear tire fishtailed. Thankfully, he stopped and I was able to get around him.
This is the second time in three rides where people driving cars have ignored my hand signals. I make sure I use the signals that you learn in drivers ed and you have to know in order to pass your driver’s test, but man, you start to wonder how many people actually remember them!
Thankfully, I have learned to be alert and defensive. I simply ride as though they don’t see me and anticipate those kind of bone-head moves that I saw last night.
